JPH10193293A - Industrial robot - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To effectively utilize energy so far uselessly consumed from a regenerative resistance by heating a coating material in a coating material supply passage by heat energy of the regenerative resistance. SOLUTION: A signal is read in from temperature sensors 16 and 17 of paint heaters 12 and 13. An operation is performed on this detecting result, and when an operation result is lower than a necessary temperature (a target preset temperature - an allowable range), resistors 14 and 15 of the paint heaters 12 and 13 are turned on, and paint is heated, and resistors 14a and 15a in the vicinity of a control board 19 are turned off. When the operation result is not lower than the necessary temperature (a target preset temperature - an allowable range), the resistors 14 and 15 are turned off, and heating of the paint is stopped, and instead, the resistors 14a and 15a are turned on, and kinetic energy at speed reduction time of a servomotor is radiated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an industrial robot, and more particularly to an industrial robot suitable for use in coating operations such as painting.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Coating work using an industrial robot (hereinafter, referred to as coating work)
The term “painting” and “paint” will be used as an example of a painting operation. In other coating operations, there are also coating operations such as sealing, etc.), and the robot main body is driven and operated by the electric motor. However, when the electric motor is decelerated, a back electromotive force is generated and excess energy is generated. At present, this energy is converted into heat energy by a regenerative resistor (generally, a cement resistor is used) attached to a servo amplifier of a control panel and is consumed.

It is known that the viscosity of a paint changes with the ambient temperature. Generally, the temperature of a paint suitable for coating varies from paint to paint, but ranges from room temperature to 70 ° C. In order to maintain high coating quality, it is necessary to control the temperature of the coating within this range.

[0004]

When a regenerative resistor is installed in a control panel, the temperature in the control panel rises due to its thermal energy and affects the operation of the system. There is a problem in that the design of the place where the resistor is installed is very difficult.

[0005] Regarding the temperature control of the coating material, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 8
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 19978, the apparatus uses hot water, a sensor and a heat exchanger to maintain the temperature of the paint properly. There was a problem that it could not be installed in a factory where the number of introduced robots was small.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and has as its object to provide an industrial robot in which paint is heated by heat radiation energy of a regenerative resistor.

[0007]

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an industrial robot comprising: a robot body driven by an electric motor; a coating means attached to the robot body; An industrial robot comprising: a coating material supply path for supplying a coating material to processing means; and a regenerative resistor connected to the electric motor and converting kinetic energy of the electric motor into heat energy. The coating material in the road is heated by the heat energy of the regenerative resistor.

Further, the invention according to claim 2 is such that the middle of the coating material supply passage passes near the regenerative resistor.

Further, the invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that the regenerative resistor is constituted by first and second resistors, and switching means for switching a current flowing through the first and second resistors is provided. The first resistor is disposed in the vicinity of the coating material supply path, and the second resistor is disposed apart from the coating material supply path.

Further, the invention according to claim 4 is characterized in that the regenerative resistor is constituted by first and second resistors, and switching means for switching a current flowing through the first and second resistors is provided. The first resistor is disposed near the coating material supply path, the second resistor is disposed separately from the coating material supply path, and the coating material supply downstream of the first resistor is provided. A temperature sensor is provided on a road, and the switching means is switched by an output of the temperature sensor.

Therefore, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the paint is heated by the heat energy wasted by the regenerative resistor, so that there is no waste of heat energy.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the coating material is heated so that the middle of the coating material supply passage passes near the regenerative resistor, so that the existing device can be heated. There is an effect that can be easily applied.

Further, according to the third aspect of the present invention, the regenerative resistor is constituted by first and second resistors, and the first and second resistors are provided.
A switching means for switching a current flowing through the resistor, wherein the first resistor is arranged near the coating material supply path, and the second resistor is arranged at a distance from the coating material supply path. By doing so, an appropriate heating temperature for each paint can be obtained, and the coating quality can be significantly improved.

Further, according to the invention of claim 4, the regenerative resistor is constituted by first and second resistors, and switching means for switching a current flowing through the first and second resistors is provided. The first resistor is disposed in the vicinity of the coating material supply path, the second resistor is disposed separately from the coating material supply path, and the coating material downstream of the first resistor is disposed. Since a temperature sensor is provided in the supply path, and the switching means is switched by the output of the temperature sensor, an appropriate heating temperature for each paint can be obtained with higher accuracy, and the coating quality is remarkably improved.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an overall view of an industrial robot according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a robot body that performs a painting operation.
The robot body 1 includes a base 2 that performs a turning operation, a first arm 3 that is attached to the base 2 and performs a rotating operation in the vertical direction, a second arm 4 that is also mounted to the first arm 3 and performs a rotating operation in the vertical direction, It comprises a wrist 5 attached to the tip of the second arm 4. A coating gun 6 is attached to the tip of the wrist 5.

Reference numerals 7 and 8 denote paint supply devices, and the paint supply devices 7 and 8 contain paints of different colors, respectively. Reference numeral 9 denotes a thinner supply device. The thinner supply device 9 contains a thinner for cleaning the paint path such as the coating gun 6. Reference numeral 10 denotes a color change valve attached to the upper surface of the second arm 4. The color change valve 10 is connected to the paint supply devices 7, 8, and the thinner supply device 9. The color change valve 10 is provided with a paint supply device 7,
8 and the thinner of the thinner supply device 9 is selected, and the paint or thinner is supplied to the coating gun 6 through the paint hose 11 attached to the robot body 1.

Reference numerals 12 and 13 denote paint warming devices which are attached to the paint supply devices 7 and 8 to keep the paint at a temperature suitable for painting. For this reason, the paint heating devices 12 and 13 have built-in resistors (generally cement resistors) 14 and 15 as regenerative resistors described later. The paint supply devices 7 and 8 are provided with temperature sensors 16 and 17 for detecting the temperature of the paint.

In FIG. 1, 14a and 15a are resistors (generally cement resistors) as other regenerative resistors, which are installed near a control panel 19 described later. These resistors 14, 14 a, 15, and 15 a are generated when a servo motor (not shown) as an electric motor provided at each joint of the robot body 1 is decelerated when driving the robot body 1. This is a resistor for converting the surplus back electromotive force into heat energy and consuming it. The same resistance is used for the resistor 14 and the resistor 14a. When the resistor 14 is in the operating state, the resistor 14a is in the inactive state, and
When “a” is in the operating state, the resistor 14 is in the inactive state. Similarly to the above, the resistor 15 and the resistor 15a are in a non-operating state when the resistor 15 is in an operating state.

Reference numeral 18 denotes a resistance switching device as switching means. The resistance switching device 18 includes the resistors 14, 14a,
Switching between 15 and 15a is performed. Reference numeral 19 denotes the above-mentioned control panel. The control panel 19 is provided with a CPU, a memory, various interfaces, etc. (all are not shown). These control the attitude of the robot body 1 and the color change valve. Control of the entire system such as switching of 10 and switching control of the resistance switch 18 is performed.

FIG. 2 is a view showing the paint supply devices 7 and 8. Since the paint supply devices 7 and 8 have the same shape, the paint supply device 7 will be described, and the description of the paint supply device 8 will be omitted. A meandering paint passage 32 is formed in the paint supply device main body 31 as a coating material supply passage. The paint stored in the paint can 33 passes through the paint passage 3 through a hose 34.
2 is connected. The resistors 14 are provided below the paint passage 32 in the paint supply device main body 31. The resistors 14 are controlled by the control panel 19, and the paint passages 32 are controlled by the resistors 14.
Is heated. And the heated paint is the paint hose 1
It is supplied to the coating gun 6 of the robot body 1 through 1a.

A temperature sensor 16 is provided below the paint passage 32 in the paint supply device main body 31 (of course, the temperature sensor 16 may be provided in the paint passage 32,
It is installed in this way for convenience of design). This temperature sensor 16 is provided at a location near the outlet of the paint passage 32 (it is better to measure the temperature immediately before painting, so it is better to be as close to the painting gun 6 as possible). , And the control panel 19 controls the switching of the resistors 14 and 14a.

The present embodiment is configured as described above. Next, the flow of processing in the control panel 19 in the painting operation by the robot body 1 will be described based on the PAD of FIG. In FIG. 3, the main program is read from the ROM (not shown) at s1, the set temperature of the paint to be used and the coating data such as the coating route are read from the data storage device (not shown), and the sampler program is started at s2. I do. The sampler program is a program that is executed by a timer (not shown) at regular intervals (for example, at one-minute intervals). At s3, the painting work is actually performed on the work, and when the work is completed, the sampler program ends at s4, and the main program ends.

Next, the flow of processing of the sampler program is shown in the PAD of FIG. In FIG. 4, signals from the temperature sensors 16 and 17 of the paint heating devices 12 and 13 are read in s5. The detection result is calculated in s6, and if the calculation result is lower than the required temperature (target set temperature-allowable range), s7
Then, the resistors 14 and 15 are turned on to heat the paint, and the resistors 14a and 15a are turned off at s8. Also, s
If the calculation result is not lower than the required temperature (target set temperature-permissible range) at 6, the resistors 14 and 15 are turned off at s9 to stop heating the paint, and the resistors 14a and 15a are used instead.
Is turned on to dissipate the kinetic energy of the servomotor during deceleration (the resistors 14 and 15 can also be controlled independently).

When the temperature of the paint reaches the required temperature by heating the paint, the resistors 14 and 15 are turned off. When the temperature of the paint falls below the required temperature, the resistors 14 and 15 are turned on. The control such as performing is performed by the control panel 19. Further, when it is not necessary to heat the paint, control is performed such that the resistors 14 and 15 are always turned off, and the resistors 14a and 15a are always turned on instead. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the case where two kinds of paints are heated has been described. However, the present invention may be such that one kind of paint is heated.

[0026]

As described in detail above, the present invention provides a robot main body driven by an electric motor, a coating means attached to the robot main body, and a coating material for supplying a coating material to the coating means. In an industrial robot comprising a coating material supply path and a regenerative resistor connected to the electric motor and converting kinetic energy of the electric motor into heat energy, the coating material in the coating material supply path has a regenerative resistance. Since the heating is performed by the heat energy, there is an effect that the energy that has been wastefully consumed from the regenerative resistor as before can be effectively used.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the coating material supply path passes through the vicinity of the regenerative resistor in the middle of the coating material supply path, the present invention can be easily applied to an existing apparatus. .

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the regenerative resistor is constituted by first and second resistors, and switching means for switching a current flowing through the first and second resistors is provided. The first resistor is disposed near the coating material supply path, and the second resistor is disposed separately from the coating material supply path. As a result, the coating quality is significantly improved.

Further, according to the present invention, the regenerative resistor is composed of first and second resistors, and switching means for switching a current flowing through the first and second resistors is provided. The first resistor is disposed near the coating material supply path, the second resistor is disposed separately from the coating material supply path, and the coating is performed downstream of the first resistor. Since a temperature sensor is provided in the material supply path and the switching means is switched by the output of the temperature sensor, an appropriate heating temperature for each paint can be obtained with higher accuracy, and the coating quality is remarkably improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of a portion of the paint supply device in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a PAD showing a processing flow in a control panel 19 in a painting operation by the robot body 1.

FIG. 4 is a PAD showing a processing flow of a sampler program part of FIG. 3;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Robot main body 2 Base 3 1st arm 4 2nd arm 5 Wrist 6 Painting gun 7,8 Paint supply device 9 Thinner supply device 10 Color change valve 11,11a Paint hose 12,13 Paint heating device 14,14a, 15, 15a Regenerative resistor 16, 17 Temperature sensor 18 Resistance switch 19 Control panel 31 Paint supply device main body 32 Paint passage 33 Paint can 34 Hose

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A robot main body driven by an electric motor, coating means attached to the robot main body, a coating material supply path for supplying a coating material to the coating means, and the electric motor And a regenerative resistor connected to the regenerative resistor for converting the kinetic energy of the electric motor to heat energy, wherein the coating material in the coating material supply path is heated by the heat energy of the regenerative resistor. An industrial robot characterized by that: 2. The industrial robot according to claim 1, wherein the coating material supply path is provided so as to pass halfway through the vicinity of the regenerative resistor. 3. The regenerative resistor includes first and second resistors, and switching means for switching a current flowing through the first and second resistors is provided, and the first resistor is provided with the coating material. 2. The industrial robot according to claim 1, wherein the second resistor is disposed near a supply path, and the second resistor is disposed apart from the coating material supply path. 4. A temperature sensor is provided in a coating material supply path downstream of said first resistor, and said switching means is switched by an output of said temperature sensor.
The industrial robot as described.